BLUE PLANET RUN

A few years back, I received a call from a gentleman by the name of Jin Zidell. Jin explained to me that he was hoping to organize a relay run to help raise funding and awareness about the world’s safe drinking water crisis. He knew that I had been affiliated with The Relay in Northern California, both on the organizational side and on the running side, and was looking for any bits of guidance I might be able to provide.

I explained that The Relay was an extremely difficult event to host, with complex logistics, intricate timing, and almost no margin for error. Not wanting to discourage him, I further explained that The Relay was 199-miles, and I imagined a shorter-format relay with fewer miles might be easier to coordinate. “How long are you anticipating your relay will go?” I asked Jin.

“Around the world.”

I nearly choked on my Rooibos tea. He was dreaming up a 15,000 mile, 24 hours a day, round-the-world escapade in which twenty relay runners would pass a baton nonstop for 95 continuous days. Other than wishing him luck, there wasn’t a whole lot I could add to the conversation at that point. Whether this event would ever materialize or not was anybody’s guess.

Today I had the great honor of not only witnessing this tremendous endeavor, but also being a part of it. The Blue Planet Run passed through the San Francisco Bay Area today, and they invited me to join the event for a stretch. I ran one leg of the relay alongside Heiko Weiner from Suhl, Germany (currently residing in Sanford, Michigan). He had many wild tales from the road, and we spent the majority of our run together exchanging stories and sharing laughs.

A festival had been set up at the finish of the relay leg, and Heiko was able to relax for a few minutes, snap a picture, before having to jump in the transport van to follow the next relay runner. He smiled and shook my hand, looking a little road-weary as he climbed back into the cramped vehicle. Clearly the pace was grueling.

Yet all for a very worthy cause. One-sixth of our fellow human beings on Earth do not have daily, immediate access to the most basic of necessities: safe drinking water. The Blue Planet Run is on track to raise $15 million dollars to address this critical global issue.

I waved goodbye to Heiko and the others and walked over to the drinking fountain, something I will never again take for granted.